﻿94 



IN'DIA^TA UNIVERSITY 



Monroe Lawrence 



Class. 



County. County. 



Rate per Hour. Rate per Hour. 



Derrick runners 

 Derrick lielpers 



Scabblers 



Teams 



21c 21c 



17c 17c 



17c 18c 



30c 35c 



If the two scales be compared, it will be found that differences 

 occur in a few cases only and that they are relatively small. 

 Moreover, the higher rates for certain classes of labor in one 

 district are offset by lower rates for other classes, so that the 

 average rate of pay is probably very much the same. 



The Romona and Stines\'ille regions are rather more isolated 

 and their wage scales are not so dependent upon the wages paid 

 in other regions of the oolitic area. The labor cost in these re- 

 gions seems to be appreciably lower than in the districts farther 

 to the south. Especially is this true at Stinesville, where the 

 chief producer is still able to get his labor supply largely from 

 farm laborers, who, though less skilful, soon learn the business 

 and willingl}^ accept lower rates of pay than the workmen of the 

 more southern regions would consider. 



The men are usually paid bi-weekly and in cash, though in 

 a few cases checks are used. The reason for using checks is the 

 desire to avoid the danger of carrying money some miles to the 

 quarry, and the abuses common to such modes of payment seem 

 to be infreciuent. Some companies pay weekly, but the work- 

 men appear generally to prefer bi-weekly payment, chiefly be- 

 cause of habit and the belief that they can save more from the 

 larger payment. This reason would have more weight if the 

 men were accustomed to buy for cash. 



The table of annual earnings is based upon the assimiption 

 that the average workman in the stone industry is employed two 

 hundred and sixty days in the year. The actual time of employ- 

 ment cannot be accurately determined : it varies not only from 

 season to season according to the severity of the winter, but also 

 in different quarries, owing to purely local conditions. How- 

 ever, under prosperous business conditions, employers operate 

 their establishments to the limit which conditions permit, and the 

 above assumption is below rather than above the estimates of 

 the employers. Moreover, the mills often run practically all the 

 year, and employers generally seek to retain the higher grades 

 of their employees by finding for them some kind of work about 

 the quarry or mill, which gives them fairly continuous employ- 



